Wonderful

I am reporting that I HAD A WONDERFUL DAY! Wonderful- from top to bottom? Is that a possibility? I know my memory is terrible, so I'm sure I forgot some not so great parts but overall a wonderful day. I think it happens when perspective changes and you realize some little students are actually people and have lives, and aren't just there to get on your nerves! What can change a wonderful day when you arrive at school at 7am to ''The Chicken Dance" followed by Sharron, Louis and Bram's Skid-amirinkidinkedink (sp?)you have an hour to prep before you have to be at ''hard court'' a daily meeting for the students where they repeat their Buddhist rituals and vows to the school- to be a good student (it's Scout's day on Friday so they all come dressed in Scout uniform, very cute, but at the start somewhat of a problem as their scout uniforms don't have their names written on them, but their school uniforms do).

Anyway hard court today was someone in our key stages turn to lead so we started the morning off with a rousing round of Y-M-C-A! Followed by my weekly trip to the very cozy and cute coffee shop around the corner from the school where I get a mocha Frappe. Well this morning was a special treat- last week they began serving breakfast and so today I partook in a delicious spread of ham, weiners, very thin and de-crusted bread, 3 slices of tomato and a lovely sunnyside up egg done to perfection in the shape of a heart! The deal is it is only 20 baht more (about 70 cents) than my regular drink I get...except I get breakfast too- go figure! (Somethings just don't make sense out here!)

The day continued well- my day teaching one less class than normal was a nice change- and I got to hear the bell chiming throughout the day (have I told you the school bell is to the tune of ''it's a small world afterall'' ? And although some classes were difficult I was able to navigate my way through the difficult students by giving talkings to- rather than yelling at them, and describing in detail how much it makes me sad when they talk the whole class or are not complete their homework-- Overall I got fairly good responses.

The school day ended with a lovely round of ''let's try to play dead for Mr. Damon'' Damon teaches after my last class on friday (he teaches a homework class-- incase going to school for 7 hours straight wasn't enough for them...) and yesterday he decided to try and get the students attention by lying on the floor and playing dead-- as nothing else was making them quiet... well it took them 3 whole minutes to notice he was even on the floor and then they looked at him quizzically and said, ''Mr. Damon, what are you doing on the floor!" Needless to say his method didn't work... Sooooo the homework students and I decided to wait quietly in the dark- playing dead for Mr. Damon to arrive.. Well it worked- except one of the student actors rose from the dead to yell at him as soon as he came through the door-- so he left and reentered- we were all quiet then and Mr. Damon started to sing a victory song- and we all had a laugh.

ANyway Spaghetti and such for supper- a quick clean of my room and then watching Erin Brokovich (sp?) with friends-- Ahhh what a lovely evening.

Well laundry should be done- and I'm off to console my neighbour who just returned from working late at school- only to tell me that she got locked into not only the school.. and had to escape through a window-- but then got locked in the school yard and the gates were even locked so the guard could not let her out-- and she had to climb the fence! Ha... what wonderful adventures--ha.. glad it wasn't me!

Well now that I've told you about a typical wonderful day I'm off to hang up my laundry and get to bed-- I'm teaching Saturday class tomorrow- thankfully We get to leave an hour later than usual! Woo hoo... isn't it sad when 7 oclock is sleeping in?!

:)Sigh....

Live well.

ps I even got a gift from a student today- I'll keep his last initial anonymous, as I have two of them in my class, but Gun (yes, his name is Gun) gave me a present today! It's in a beautiful box I think I'll dismantle and frame.. but check out the ingredient list (Moon Cake: Sugar, Cashew Nut, Salted egg yolk, sweet pork, wheat flour, squash, watermelon seed, white sesame seed, sweet apricot kernel, macadamia nut, vegetable oil and egg... hmmm scrumptious? I guess we'll see tomorrow!)

On the Beach!

Saying good morning to the snail after a night of rain.

What happens in Koh Samet...

Nothing like a good bake on the beach- but who would have thought a couple hours by the pool would result in Christy turning into Larry the Lobster! It is amazing what a weekend out of the smog can do! It was lovely to go away for the weekend and do absolutely nothing.... but lie by the pool! Saturday was filled with going out for breakfast- getting an hour massage, $6 this time, sleeping by the pool in the cool breeze and eating- can't forget eating!!! It is SO nice to get out of the smog!

That first paragraph was written after last weekend- - - but then I went away again (the last time until Shaun comes in 30 sleeps!).... I went to an EVEN BETTER place- where I kept my skin fully saturated with sun screen (well more like my molting skin- I've never peeled before in my life!)

I went to an ISLAND-- yup that's right... a lovely warm ISLAND in Thailand- for a weekend. I didn't do much at all, except it was one of the best weekends of my life!

We got there Friday night via 2 hour-ish taxi and speedboat ride and walked 5 minutes off the beach to our guesthouse - ''the lost resort". We got ready and literally danced the night away, the pub where we ventured to (of course on the beach) was filled with tourists and Thai's alike ready to have a fun time, and the live music was amazing!

The weekend was wonderful to get away with 4 other people I didn't know so well and be able to be in such a small group that I actually got to have some great conversations and now I have 4 closer friends! Saturday we woke up late- wandered out for breakfast on the beach and spent the day lying on the beach/ getting massages - on the beach, and foot scrubs, and then I ventured to do something I"ve been thinking about for a long time and it's finally come to fruition- a tattoo.

I have been thinking about it for quite some time and wandered down to a place some of my friends had previously been, so I knew it was safe and good and such. They said I could come back in a couple hours to see the drawing he'd come up with. So I ventured back down the beach- bought a water ring-- and ended up traded it for a floating water bed! (much nicer:) Then we got all cleaned up and went out for a lovely supper- sitting on the beach. I ate RIBS! with AMAZING sauce and a baked potato....though apparently western food fills me up- so I had 2 ribs left and tin foiled them up and put them in my bag for later (...things I learned from grandpa Roberts!)--they later came in handy later after doing some exhausting dance moves!

So we ate supper and watched a CRAZY fire show! The show was almost a whole hour and included throwing of fire, fire balls, standing on shoulders while holding things that were on fire etc. etc. I"ll try to upload some video clips. The Thai boys/men that were doing it were also so in shape I have never seen anything in real life like that before! (I thought people with Abs were only in the movies!)... it was a very well done show.

Then we ventured off for the tattoo. I'll spare you the details of how much it hurt, how much my arm hurt from tensing it over my ear so I couldn't hear the process. It was nice to have my friends come with me and support me...they hung out for 2 hours whilst I got it done! It turned out really well- though I'm still feeling the new haircut feel---do I really love it?! It is very well done and not too painful while it's healing. BUT while we were in the tattoo parlour me and my pirate friend :) Martha decided we'd like to get our noses pierced. Well, since I had endured a painful 2 hours anyway I decided I'd go first- what a mistake! Not sure if it's because the Roberts' nose has 12x more cartilage than other noses, but I think it was the most painful moment of my life! It hurt SO bad and Martha decided she wouldn't be getting one for herself- I also recommended that she didn't...as the tears would not stop flowing. At least he felt bad for me and decided to give me the piercing and earring for free! So that was nice!

And that brings me to today-- AFTER I got the tattoo and painful piercing we STILL decided to go back and go dancing....so needless to say I'm a little tired still...afterall I am getting old so 4-6 hours of sleep a night just doesn't cut it for me!

I guess I can't really complain: I got a leopard print sarong, a new floaty bed, a tattoo, a nose ring AND on the way home I asked a group of tourists if I could have one of their shirts-- so I got a FREE bright pink tshirt - that is way to big for me... that says I (heart) Fun and Partying- (the fun and partying part is written in Thai)...

Soo... needless to say, I am a very tired girl.. but a very happy one at that! What a wonderful weekend spent in creation, meeting new people- solidifying work friendships...and the rest is history... after all what happens in Koh Samet stays in Koh Samet--- don't worry I really didn't do anything else....except wade in the water on Sunday and take a few pics!

Hope your weekend was almost as rewarding as mine- though my dad says he wouldn't recommend tattoos to anyone...and right now may be the first time he's heard about the nose ring.....

Quote of the day, "Enjoy each day like a picnic in the park- brief, yet sensational!" -CLR